Foot massage is so popular in Thailand that it seems you can find a foot massage establishment on just about any street corner in any Thai city. While at some you may get at best a relaxing food massage, at others you may find dedicated, professional reflexology. Most of the major spas in Thailand offer reflexology massage for the feet, a healing massage that can leave not just your feet, but your whole body walking on air.

Reflexology is a holistic therapy that applies pressure to specific points of the feet to treat problems in all parts of body. Similar to the concept of Thai massage therapy, reflexology is based on the principle that the body has natural energy that flows freely around the body when the person is in good health. The body's energy flows in zones and is dynamic, balancing itself to meet the individual's needs. With stress, tension, anxiety, poor diet, or lack of exercise, the energy flow becomes disrupted. In reflexology, specific points on the feet and hands are thought to correspond to each part of the body. Applying pressure to points on the foot is supposed to treat the corresponding part of the body.

Though the practice of foot massage has been known to man since the earliest civilizations and is depicted on Egyptian tomb paintings, reflexology as we know it today is a modern therapy developed in the early 20th century. It was an American woman, Eunice Ingham, who identified and mapped out the body's reflex zones in a form of zone therapy, referring to the method as reflexology.

How can a reflexologist tell when there's an energy block in your body? Once sign of energy imbalance is a gritty feeling. crystal-like in texture, that the reflexologist can detect beneath the skin. The location of grittiness indicates the problem area in the body. The reflexologist will try to break down this grittiness in order to restore the energy flow to that part of the body and flush out the toxins. The patient may feel discomfort when pressure is applied to problem spots. This helps the therapist identify the origin of the imbalance in the body, and treat that area by releasing the energy block there.